Myanmar must listen to its people, Indonesia’s top diplomat told her counterpart from Naypyidaw in Bangkok on Wednesday, as they held the first known face-to-face meetings between a senior junta member and foreign governments since the Feb. 1 Myanmar coup.
Foreign ministers Retno Marsudi of Indonesia, Don Pramudwinai of Thailand, and Wunna Maung Lwin met briefly at Don Mueang International Airport after her planned trip to Myanmar had to be postponed, she told an online press conference after the gathering.
Retno said she told Wunna Maung Lwin that “the wishes of the Myanmar people must be heard,” and called for “an inclusive democratic transition process.”
“[W]e need to create a conducive situation through dialogue, reconciliation, and trust-building,” she said. “The safety and welfare of the people of Myanmar is of paramount importance.”
She called on all parties to refrain from violence and urged the military rulers to allow “humanitarian access and visits to detainees.”
Retno said she was also holding “intensive” discussions with the Committee of Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, or CRPH, a shadow parliament formed by Burmese lawmakers elected in the November 2020 vote that the junta claims was marred by fraud.
Myanmar’s envoy also met Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha in a closed-door session on Wednesday.
“We, as friends, have to listen to one another. However, [we] give them moral support,” Prayuth told reporters after the meeting.
“As an ASEAN country, we have to encourage cooperation and offer good wishes that everything (in Myanmar) comes to normalcy,” he said.
Myanmar trip ‘postponed’
Indonesia, the largest country in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and a founding member of the bloc, has been on a diplomatic push to get neighboring countries more involved in addressing the coup in Myanmar. Last week, Retno visited Brunei, this year’s ASEAN chair, and Singapore.
She had been due to make an hours-long trip to Naypyidaw on Thursday, in what would have been the first known visit by a foreign envoy since the coup, but it had to be delayed, she said.
“This postponement has not dampened the intention to establish communication with all parties in Myanmar, including with the Myanmar military and the CRPH,” Retno said Wednesday.
Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said the time was “not ideal” for a visit.
In Myanmar on Tuesday, the activist group Future Nation Alliance rejected the purported visit, calling it “tantamount to recognizing the military junta” by embarking on “official communications with the coup regime.”
On Feb. 1, Myanmar’s generals seized power from the elected government and arrested civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and others. The military declared a one-year state of emergency to deal with allegations of voting fraud tied to the Nov. 8 general election, which Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy handily won, according to polling authorities.
The country has since been gripped by a civil disobedience movement and huge anti-coup protests that have continued to swell despite internet blackouts, curfews, and the killing of at least three people by security forces attempting to suppress the demonstrations.
Reported by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.
